


Unpolished Stones

by Lacrinacre



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-07-29 12:50:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7685293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacrinacre/pseuds/Lacrinacre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A whole bunch of oneshots and short stories featuring random subject matter. Readability is debatable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Malachite

Bound by distress, struggling, writhing all six viscous limbs on the muddy ocean bed as adamantine chains drag her further down into the primordial grime.

Lapis struggles, yanking and tugging hard as Jasper roars and bellows soundlessly in fury. 

Both of them in the awful mind, stained malachite green and swirling with dark patterns. 

Mirror surface splashing under bare feet. 

Suffocating darkness worming into every crevice.

Silvery bubbles cluster and explode, rising to the surface of the eternal abyss.

Chests ready to burst, they fight nonetheless.

Lapis drags her underwater, darkness devours.

Jasper reaches and strangles her, roaring silver triumph.

A struggle, the two of them, caked in mud and grime, briny, wrestle. 

Naked teeth sink into a weak, pulsing throat.

Nails splitting and cracking from pressure rake across the striped arm.

Release.

Both of them fall away, hissing and spitting vile curses.

It begins anew.


	2. Captured

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl finds herself in a bit of a predicament. Some Rose/Pearl fluff at the end.

Pearl’s breath grew tight in her throat. 

It hadn't occurred to her that she would be such a large target, and now that she thought of it, it had been stupid for her not to realise. 

Now she was trapped, deep in enemy territory, it was quite the predicament. 

Warily testing the mesh of the trap, she tried to pull her arm upwards, if only she could summon her spear…

A heavy step behind her made her flinch, and as she turned, a hulking amethyst stepped into view. 

She renewed her struggles, panic growing. She was going to die. 

The amethyst grabbed the top of the net, yanking her close to inspect her. She muttered a quick comment of: “That's right.”, before yanking the net from its perch.

Pearl pressed against the other side of the net, breathing quick as her eyes locked on her captor. 

“What do you want?”

The amethyst didn't answer, shaking her before dropping her to the ground. 

“Will you come willingly?”

Tension gone, Pearl reached up to her gem, and in seconds, summoned her spear. To her dismay, the amethyst was quicker. 

A kick caught her across the head, then stomped on her wrist. Immediately, she was rendered dazed and completely helpless. The sound of her spear dissipating was of no comfort. 

In another breath, she was pinned physically by the other gem, who grinned triumphantly down at her. Her eyes flew to the rock in the amethyst’s hand. 

_ Crunch.  _

Her back arched and she writhed, further entangling herself in the mesh as the rock crushed her ribs. 

The homeworld soldier lifted her and she drooped in her grip, trying to recover from the shock and pain. 

No scream escaped her, instead, a hoarse wheeze rattled her broken chest and she released her physical form with a gentle  _ poof.  _

  
  


Pearl awoke with a gasp. 

Body trembling, she wrapped her slender arms around herself, inhaling in tiny shallow breaths. 

She shivered involuntarily. 

The air was so light here, she most certainly wasn’t on Earth. With a wince and a bit of a struggle, she shook the stiffness from her joints and stood with difficulty. She ended up tripping and nearly fell, the fact that her hands were chained behind her making it difficult to balance.

She let out an uncharacteristic curse, falling to her knees and feeling fury override her. 

No. She had to calm down. 

Where was she?

She looked up and glanced about. Nothing extraordinary in her cell, the exciting place it was. Then craning her neck and squinting at the place where a yellow force field met the ceiling, she reveled in its ominous air. 

Pearl knew she was in trouble.

They’d want information from the terrifying renegade, the closest thing to Rose.    
She felt a little pang in her chest at that. She’d always been proud of that, but now...

At the sound of footsteps, Pearl froze, then allowed herself to relax. 

They would hurt her, surely. 

Fists clenching in their binds as the pair of Topazes opened the door and yanked her to her feet. She practiced pushing down everything, remembering the blank slate she had been when she had first been created. She would say nothing.

She would bear it, she would do it for Rose.

 

When the rescue team finally scoops her up, gem cracked and eyes glassy from her cell after who knows how long, she lies limp in their arms, not moving or uttering even a single noise until finally,  _ finally,  _ she’s back in Rose’s arms. 

There’s a frantic and shocked gasp, the others are dismissed hurriedly and then they are alone.

She’s curled, teeth gritted, forehead damp with sweat as she struggles to bear the pain. Even in the soft, cloud-like fabric of her leader’s dress, every small brush of it against her wounds brings hellish agony.

Whatever they'd injected her with keeps her from poofing, the effort of staying awake sends little shivers up her spine. 

She manages to pry open her own teeth for a moment, breath coming in harsh whistles.

“...I-I said n-nothing.”

A hand reaches down and gently, oh so gently brushes her cheek. She can't help but shudder and let out a small pained noise. 

“Oh... my Pearl…”

A second passes before Pearl speaks again, voice weak. 

“...p-please… e-end it..”

She sees shock in Rose’s eyes, sadness, pain and despair. Then there is anger. She knows it is not directed at her, but at those who had done this. 

“Pearl, I…”

She lies patiently as Rose looks away, voice quiet. 

“You know I can't.”

It is quiet for a moment. The sound of someone entering reaches her and she feels a cold towel laid across her forehead. 

Pearl gives an erratic shudder, broken fingers clenching spontaneously as she finally allows herself to whimper, gasp, whine even as the pain just grows worse and worse.

She is too weak to reach out. Instead, she sends a pleading look at Rose. 

“P-please.”

There is a pregnant pause, then there is a soft scraping noise. 

The thin point of a misericord hovers over her gem. A single stab and it would be over. 

Pearl closes her eyes. 

There's a choked noise and the closeness of the point to her gem is gone. She protests weakly. 

Strong arms lift her, and she can feel the tremors as Rose, shaking, walks over to the small mattress on the side, laying her upon it. The softness envelopes her and her eyelids flutter, on the brink of unconsciousness. 

Or perhaps it is death. 

Pearl finds she doesn’t care, if only the pain will stop.

Rose’s warm hands press against her, one on her forehead to hold her still, the other on the mess that was her shoulder, leaking fluid. Her pink curls brush Pearl’s mangled chest and she can only let out a wretched noise. 

Rose grimaces, Pearl inhales sharply in response, still trembling as the towel is peeled away. 

A second passes.

Two.

The warmth of tears seeps into her gem. 

Pearl lets out a weak scream and Rose hurriedly comforts her. 

The feeling of the drops hitting its surface is making her head throb, but the soothing comfort of it as they inch into the cracks is worth all the pain in the world. 

The tears don’t stop and after a while, she hears Rose murmur. 

“Pearl...”

Pearl wants so badly to respond, but the air is sharp as she breathes and it hurts.

“...is it… how bad is the pain?”

This time she knows she must answer. Her voice is a whistling croak as air brushes through her bleeding windpipe. She stops, then tries again. 

This time, she’s prepared for the pain.

“...i-it hurts.”

She hears a sigh. Rose’s expression is not one she can bear at the moment and she shuts her eyes. 

“...I'm sorry Pearl, I'm sorry…”

She feels her entire body tense, then she relaxes and gives a feeble halfhearted smile of acceptance. 

There’s a shuffling, a clink and then a finger is coaxing her mouth open. She obliges weakly and feels cold glass press lightly against the bleeding patches on her lips. 

“...please drink, this will ease it for a while.”

Rose’s voice is comforting and warm, Pearl can only obey. 

As she had thought to herself before, she would bear the pain. 

She would do it for Rose.

She swallows and chokes, a gentle hand props her up and rubs her back and throat. 

Pearl dutifully takes the rest of the dosage and soon enough, she falls into unconsciousness. Soft white sheets are drawn up to blanket her. 

“...Sleep, my Pearl.”

 


	3. Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (some practice)  
> A "sonnet" from Pearl to Rose.

Grasping for her memory is steep  
Strawberry handrails, sweet and slick as bone,   
Her eyes are red as crushed roses and deep  
Painted glass swirling behind panes of stone,

Her hair is cherry as a summer peach  
Strands like fire in the cut of the dawn,  
And though she’s always in your starving reach,  
You cannot help but continue to fawn,

Salmon dusted shells, ground to rosy sand   
Imbue the shellac casing of her gem.  
Flamingo craquelure, sharp in pale hands  
Freshly bloodstained dredges, slicing in them.

She is your perfect rose, a paragon,  
Then once again you remember she’s gone.


	4. Soundless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vent.

Her legs drawn tight to her chest, arms fixed in ice as she struggles motionlessly, her body unresponsive, muscles straining, weary and tensed.  
She's been like that for thousands of years.  
Her back aches, neck hurts, it feels like stone pressing into her at all sides.  
And when she thinks it's painful, her thoughts flash and reflect thousands of times, cutting into her like shards of glass, resonating until their whisper builds a cacophony, cathedrals of words, crashing down atop her and sending pangs of exhausted pain through her mind.  
She knows not to think.  
She knows not to speak.  
She knows not to move.  
She has tried, but to move and not to move is the same. After thousands of years of struggling, her body finds it impossible to relax, she can only tense, hurting all over and feeling as though her very bones will break and sinews will tear until she's nothing.  
And she's alone, so alone. There's nothing to see, only darkness and hell and the abyss and she's tired and hurting and everything is burning. 

Then there's a voice.  
She cannot speak, but his voice, his words fill in the gaps where they might fall. Her long sentences, silent apart from the words he’s given her, falling into place, distorted and corrupted. 

“You’re pretty funny for a mirror!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some literary refs here and there.

A stone with a sharpened cut like jagged lightning,   
Her fists are sledgehammers, her body wrought iron,  
There’s something about the point that draws her closer,  
Finally, this will bring imminent victory.

Magenta stripes with a diamond’s efficiency,  
Curling jade horns of studious quartz contentment,  
Eyes of burning fire in distant deep and sky,  
And a gem in dire need of tender polish.

It’s easy to lose yourself in the thralls of space.   
Its quiet, so quiet, cold, empty and airless.   
Silently, alone, she swings aimlessly, idle,  
Invisible trapezes through the empty air.


End file.
